Summary: 4/21/2011
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Chapter 7p
Data Types
What is a data type?
·A set of values
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versus
·A set of values + set of operations on those values
Why data types?
· Data abstraction
­ Programming style
­ Modifiability ­ enhance readability
· Type checking (semantic analysis) can be done at compile time -
Type checking is the process a translator goes through to determine
whether the type information is consistent
· Compiler uses type information to allocate space for variables
T l ti ffi i T i ( i ) b d t
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· Translation efficiency: Type conversion (coercion) can be done at

Source: Allan, Vicki H. - Department of Computer Science, Utah State University

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences